After classes were dismissed Tuesday morning at Addelita Cancryn Junior High School due to a job action by teachers, an altercation broke out between students, resulting in a V.I. police officer assigned to the school firing a gun into the air as a warning.
Witnesses at the scene told Radio One News that during a fight between students on the campus, one student struck and injured another with a copper pipe. However, St. Thomas-St. John District superintendent Rosalia Payne, who said she had been on the campus "from early" because of the failure of teachers to report for work, told the station she understood the injured student had been stuck with a rock.
According to witnesses, one of two police officers on the campus got caught up in the melee while trying to break up the fight, and a second officer fired at least one warning shot.
Payne told Radio One she had been told that two shots were fired, but that the officer who discharged his gun as a warning "took his good time and allowed what happened to happen."
The injured student was taken by ambulance to Roy L. Schneider Hospital, where he was treated and released. Before he left the campus, he reportedly opened the ambulance door twice to threaten a police officer at the scene, saying he had a gun at home and was going to use it on the officer.
Acting Police Chief Jose Garcia was unavailable for comment Tuesday.